Test/review of Vapcell S4+ fast charger

Just got it.It can charge 3 X 26650 which is good enough.That is how many I charge after using my NI40…EACH cell lasts about 15 min.I bring a total of 3 including the one in the light.

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The only negative I see so far is that stupid buzzer when the batteries are done. 100% and a battery icon when the grid is solid is enough for me. Especially in the summertime when I charge them while I’m sleeping. Or let’s say try to sleep. I am of millions of Americans who don’t sleep much 4 to 5 hours a night that’s it. I don’t need that stupid buzzer waking me up. I guess that means no charging overnight.

Now I am waiting for members to say…Do not charge unattended! I am attending in a state of meditation !

It charged my 3 X P42A to 4.19V…good enough.

Buzzer is indeed annoying at night.

My only other gripe that was not listed in previous posts is that it wont revive an over discharged NiMH. I really like using this for AA Eneloops since it has the 1A charge rate and better termination than my Miboxer (for NiMH) which seems to stop early.

This charger has always had very high potential but seemingly everyone’s use finds a pretty big con with it despite the nice amount of overall features.

I think alot of notice imperfections or defects…I know I do.Here is another one.

Especially when there are three or four batteries it’s difficult to get them out. I probably had 10 different Chargers in my life. Only Fenix gets it right as far as removing the batteries. They have an indent at the positive end where our index finger fits and easily gets the batteries out.

Fenix ARE-C2 is the only charger that I have that has used this technology so to speak.

For this S4 Plus I have used my fingernail and I don’t want to ruin the wrapper, or a little piece of wood, popsicle stick at the positive end to get it loose and then pulled out. I guess another way is at the negative and where the spring is to pull back on that. I haven’t tried that yet.

Has anybody opened this one ? Buzzer is a big no no for me, if it’s easy to open (i.e. not welded like many plastic cases like this) then it’s not really a problem to remove the buzzer.

Or you could lay a piece of ribbon between the batteries and case so you have a little pull/lift tab. I’ve not done it but it would be similar to what is included with many multi cell electronics.

I understand the concept. But how is that supposed to work if you have 4 batteries in there and one piece of ribbon when you pull on it you might disturb the other ones. So I’m not going to cut a little piece of ribbon for each one!

I will manage like I do with the other ones. It’s just a pain in the you-know-what.

After using PD18w charging for powerbanks etc or QC3.1 charging it’s totally sucks when the specs of most 4 slot chargers are 4x 500mA. It just takes too long, I want at least 2A per slot preferably 3A. I don’t want to wait 3 or 4 hours to charge an 18650 it’s just not necessary with today’s tech. I have a Nitecore USM4 which is decent buy could be better, components are low grade, voltage readouts are not accurate. I want to upgrade but haven’t found the perfect charger yet.

Personally I don’t think charging li-ion batteries whilst you are asleep is a good idea anyway.

That’s okay. Like I said in my post I know someone’s going to say something about it. I have been doing it for 10 years with no issues. Only in the summer cuz I’m out later cuz it gets dark later.

EDIT. I will try to be succinct. I never sleep more than two hours without waking up. Happens to a lot of men over 50. I wake up four or five times during the night. So when I go to bed and I wake up an hour and a half two hours later batteries are done. Turn it off. That’s my story. Besides that sleep disorder. I am a Very light sleeper.

Good that the 26650 batteries you used allow charging in the middle slot with the 2 outer slots occupied.

I didn’t mention that possibility, because the 3rd 26650 battery in the Vapcell S4 Plus, may or may not be chargeable, depending on what kind of “top” design is the 26650 batteries. Some 26650 batteries with different top design will not make proper contact when sitted (improperly) in the middle slot of the Vapcell S4 Plus, but some 26650 will.

Also, physically there is no difference for Vapcell S4 Plus (initial batch) versus Vapcell S4 Plus (revised batch) - only some of the charger’s behavior has been tweaked a bit.

Yes, you are right. I have had some 26650 that would not make contact. I have magnets for that and now they will work. Although the high drains I’m using now make good contact with the positive end of the S4 Plus, I’ve had Chargers where I did have to use my magnets. Sometimes it’s a combination of the type of positive end on the battery and the positive end on the charger.

Thank God for my Opus.

This charger is useless to me for discharge test.It specifies that slot #1 and #4 can Only diacharge at 1 amp.Thats bad enough.Mine will Not do that. Two times I had to put my VTC5A and 30Q in. Both times I set at 1000mAh discharge rate. Once it started to disharge Both batteries we’re only discharging at 500 milliamps.

EDIT:I tried 5 times with an array of batts. VTC5A,30Q,P26A and Vapcell G53.Everytime it could ONLY Discharge either slot 1 or 4 at 1000mAh.The other was always at 500mAh.I am taking it back tomorrow

Thanks for all the the reviews you do.

I found out from Liionwholesale there’s a bug /electronic glitch in the device. All the devices. The only way to do a capacity test at 1 amp in Slots 1 and 4 is manually. Manually give a Full charge, then manually discharge it and write the numbers down then manually charge it and write the numbers down to compare and they should be the same.

If they ever come out with version 3 they need to fix that. And make it like the Opus where you can discharge all four slots at 1 amp. If they need to remove some of the other useless stuff on this display panel to accommodate that, then do it! Its a good charger for charging but they’re discharging technology sucks, Fred Flintstone like!

With regards to discharge current for Vapcell S4 Plus, I’ve also been curious how to set the discharge current (when using “Test” mode). I’ve addressed this question to Vapcell before, and their reply was that the charger automatically selects the discharge current, but according to what criteria, that isn’t exactly known… (unlike some chargers, where setting for example, charge current of 1A, results in 0.5A discharge current, setting 0.5A charge current, results in 0.25A discharge current.) On the Vapcell S4 Plus, it seems to automatically and erratically choosing the discharge current.

I have experienced the Vapcell S4 Plus discharging at 1A discharge current (slot #1 & #4) while in Test mode; but sometimes, it also auto-selects 0.5A discharge current while in Test mode. I have not yet been able to figure out the correlation as to when it discharges at 1A or 0.5A. To manually force 1A discharge current will require, as you mentioned, using “Discharge” mode though.

Regarding the Opus BT-C3100, based on certain feedbacks, discharging at 1A might (especially when all slots are being tested) result in overstated capacity result, due to the charger overheating and then pausing the test for awhile to cool-down, and then restarting the discharge operation (at least, that’s how I understand what’s happening). Unless install a separate fan so that the Opus does not overheat while discharging (maybe it does this less in a cooler climate; but in our tropical climate, sometimes the Opus charger fan automatically starts up even when not doing any testing, because our ambient temperature got too hot that the Opus fan automatically starts spinning…

I’ve removed the speaker from my Vapcell S4 Plus.

There are screws under the rubber feet. The back of the case slides out. Unclip the springs to pull the main PCB out. Heatsinks at the top fit snugly but they slide out with the PCB.

The display PCB needs to be unplugged, unscrewed and carefully lifted up. The display easily falls off the PCB.

The speaker is soldered to the display PCB.

  • Cut the trace
  • Cut the trace + install switch
  • Desolder buzzer
  • Electrical tape hole for “quiet buzzer”

Hmm the options…

Thanks to HKJ for the initial review. I went and bought a Vapcell S4 plus in June 2020. It charged all my cells fairly fast, and I like the display quite a bit. The end of charge beep was annoying though, but I learned to live with it.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I put in my regular Samsung INR21700-50E cell in to the S4 plus (which I charged at least 50 times on the S4 plus), and immediately, I smell smoke from the S4 plus. I immediately took the INR21700-50E out, and double checked to make sure it’s put in the right way, and it was.

After I unplugged the power cord from the back of the S4 plus, I can smell the fried electrical pieces inside the charger. I thought it might be the INR21700-50E cell had gone bad, and charged it in my Miboxer M8, which was plugged into the same power strip, and the charging went normally on the M8.

I contacted Vapcell for support a couple of days ago to tell them about my problem and offer to send the S4 plus to them so they can inspect it, and they told me I’ll need to pay for the shipping to and from Shenzhen and repair cost, so I’m thinking Vapcell is not really interested in finding out the root cause of the issue.

I learned from this, and won’t be getting any Vapcell chargers in the future.

Hope you guys have better luck with your S4 plus charger, but do keep it away from flammable material.

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Is there anything new about the upgraded Vapcell Charger, that some members mentioned should soon be released?